Worldwide betting ban for players in England

Players in the top eight tiers of English football will be subject to a blanket ban on betting on the sport from next season.

Published

21 May 2014

Players including Andros Townsend, Cameron Jerome and Dan Gosling have been fined for breaches of the current rules in the past 12 months, and the Football Association (FA) announced their intention to overhaul the regulations last month.

The changes have now been ratified by the FA shareholders' annual general meeting and will come into force on August 1.

An FA statement released on Wednesday read: "Participants covered by the ban will be prohibited from betting, either directly or indirectly, on any football match or competition that takes place anywhere in the world.

"The changes to FA Rules from the start of the 2014-15 season will also effect a worldwide prohibition on betting on any other football-related matter. For example, the transfer of players, employment of managers or team selection.

"The passing of inside information to somebody that uses the information for betting remains prohibited.

"Following consultation with the game’s stakeholders, the prohibition had previously received a unanimous recommendation by the FA Council on 9 April and the Football Regulatory Authority in March."

Speaking to Perform in March, William Hill director of security Bill South emphasised the necessity for co-operation between the FA and bookmakers should such a ban come into force.

"The FA are obviously now starting to think about going along the lines of a blanket ban for those people that participate in football," he said. "It's not going to be straightforward because of the amount of people who are involved in the sport.

"That's why working with them is the key to it and I suppose, from my own experience, it's about the sanctions that an individual sport can apply to those people that break their rules, because that's where the deterrent factor comes into it."

The current regulations state that no participant is allowed to bet on a match or competition that they are involved in or can influence in that season, or any other-football related matter concerning the league in which they compete.